Robert Fisher

overview

Robert Fisher has been CEO of several businesses in the global publishing and retail bookselling industries. His leadership has involved multinational subsidiaries in the UK, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

APPROACH

Throughout his career, Robert has been involved in forming or reconstructing businesses around collaboration, relationships in each leadership team, and jointly conceived change and development strategies.

CAREER HISTORY

Robert has considerable experience as a CEO focusing on business transformation, growth, acquisitions, mergers and change management. Born and educated in Glasgow, Scotland, Robert joined the international publishing firm of William Collins, now part of HarperCollins within News Corporation. As a management trainee, he graduated from the Institute of Marketing in London and later attended Strathclyde University Business School. Transferred by the Collins Group to Johannesburg in the 1970s, Robert drove the growth and modernisation of their regional interests, leading to his appointment as Managing Director – Southern Africa. In the mid-1980s, Robert turned round a similar operation in New Zealand, and after three years went on to the UK to create a new division as MD of HarperCollins Cartographic with responsibility for publishing world-leading maps and atlases. In 1993, Robert was invited by Pearson plc to become MD of their educational companies in Australia and New Zealand, then known as Longman. He was also made a Director of Penguin Books in both Australia and New Zealand and later a Director of the Australian Publishers Association and Copyright Agency Limited. More recently Robert was Managing Director of The Ink Group in Australia and New Zealand, integrating the Company into American Greetings, after which he was CEO of the family-owned Collins Booksellers group in Australia.

PERSONAL

Robert enjoys travel, music, photography and reading. He is married to Myra, a teacher from Scotland, and together they have proudly brought up their two professional daughters who have thrived on the rigours of moving around the world.

“I found my mentor very practical, with deep executive experience coupled with a great approach to problem solving. The mentoring process has helped me to achieve greater clarity, has challenged my thinking and broadened my views in many areas.”